America
by XTAIGAX
Summary: Flippy leaned up - the hero a few inches taller - and pressed their lips together lightly, then turned on his heel, waving. "I'll see ya tonight?" he teased with a crooked grin. And besides, he got his twenty year check today, a small bonus, but big enough to spoil both Flippy and Splendid.


Since I've been really inactive here- *grins sheepishly* I've been trying to avoid the internet and kinda in a bit of a depression since I last updated. A blue moon ago. Oh wow, whoops. But I made something really quickly, and it was typed up on my phone. The song is 'America' by Imagine Dragons, and this is SplendidFlippy from Happy Tree Friends.

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/Is this just an illusion... I made in my head to get me by? 20 years in debt.../

Tugging on his uniform - a suit and tie, since he'd started working at the Center - the man had busied his fingers with the tie before his lover made his way over to the green-eyed male. Fixing the tie, the veteran giving a sheepish grin, Splendid gave an amused smile, almost bordering a smirk. "Have a good day at work, Flippy," he laughed, leaning forward to press a kiss to the man's cheek.

Flippy leaned up - the hero a few inches taller - and pressed their lips together lightly then turned on his heel, waving. "I'll see ya tonight?" he teased with a crooked grin. The office job wasn't really the veteran's forte, but he sure wasn't quite up for going back to war again. And besides, he got his twenty year check today, a small bonus, but big enough to spoil both Flippy and Splendid.

/20 years in the government. 20 years will never get me by. Then I feel you close... Feel you close like you wanted me to./

Feeling arms around his waist, Flippy looked behind him, seeing only a large spot of navy blue hair. Curious, he ran his fingers through the waves of the sea-colored strands. "Splendid...?" he asked before being cut off by his significant other's head shaking.

"I have a bad feeling about today," the hero finally murmured, the veteran's eyes lowering a bit. "It'll be fine," Flippy immediately responded. "You've been having bad feelings since this month started."

Splendid peered up with watery cyan eyes, his chest clenching in fear. "Flippy..."

/Feel you close like you wanted me to. Believe in you.../

Sighing, Flippy turned and kissed the watery-eyed male's forehead. "I'll be careful. I'll call you if anything happens. Anything at all. And you can come be my hero, okay?" he teased, trying to lighten the mood.

"Okay..."

/Rise to the top of the world.../

Burning heat, burning heat everywhere...! Gasping and breathing through the sleeves of his shirt, the veteran immediately pressed through the burning walls. Cubicles and bodies and debris were everywhere, littering everywhere the fire illuminated.

/America, America, don't you cry./

Brushing away the tears of one of his coworkers - her name was 'Giggles', but she and her friend 'Cuddles' worked a few floors above him - he tried to give a reassuring smile.

Looking up, he saw the fire department's squadron, and immediately hefted the small group of - childrentooyoungforthis, tooyoungtodie - above him, his arms aching.

/Lift me up, give me strength to press on. Rise to the top of the world, America. America, don't you cry./

And suddenly there were tears sliding down his cheeks. Reaching his hand up, his fingertips barely brushing with one of the ladder members, he peered upward, seeing the large crack above them. The floor above them, if they stayed...!

Looking to Flaky and Splendont - his lover's friend and twin - he gave a shaky grin and drew his hand back. "Tell Splendid I love him. Sorry I couldn't see him tonight," he murmured, locking his jaw. Tipping his head, the squadron members peered up, noting the loud cracking and immediately pulled the other characters back. Hearing muffled protests, though he was sure it was for the best, Flippy glanced around. No windows... The firefighters had to leave...

Sending a quick text - he didn't trust his voice and didn't want the hero to hear him - he managed to hear the final crack and press the send button.

A bright green text happily proclaiming 'Text sent' flashed and Flippy smiled to himself before feeling the crushing weight on top of him. His arm managed to avoid the cracks of cement, the flashing green offsetting the red and orange fire.

'You were right. Today was a bad day. I love you'

/Lift me up.../

Splendid sobbed to himself, the tough facade breaking as Flaky shakily delivered the news, thick bubbles of tears streaming down her own face. Splendid was less affected by the news, instead sighing quietly and wrapping his arms around his brother. He hadn't known the veteran personally, but he owed a lot to the man that had at least saved his life.

/Give me strength to press on... From farmers in the fields... to the tallest of the towers that fall and rise.../

"A tragedy has befallen all of New York, today..." the newscaster said solemnly, her voice cracking. She looked miserable, and her normally well-groomed ivory-and-snowy-blue hair was distraught. 'Petunia' flashed under her image.

/1-7-7-6, the names on the list, for all the ones that gave until they died./

Petunia looked over to her right where a long line of names were scrolling upward on a screen. She looked close to tears, and Splendid only cried dry tears, Flaky and Splendont beside him. Flaky was curled against his side, trying to nervously calm down the other and the red-headed twin was watching the television.

'Flippy.'

And that one word - the man's last name long gone from years of war and amnesia and being a John Doe - made Splendid bite his lip roughly, trying to hold in the grief.

/Don't you hold back... I can see in your mind and your mind will set you free./

Watching the other from above, Flippy mourned, his eyes sad and soft. Slowly moving downward, the opalescent spirit wrapped his arms around the other, pretending like he didn't press through the body.

/And I feel you close... Feel you close like you wanted me to.../

Smiling, Flippy whispered quietly in the other's ear, recounting the small memories they shared. First meeting. First flip. First date. First kiss. First time.

'Don't doubt me...'

/Feel you close like you wanted me to... Believe in you... Rise to the top of the world, America.../

The funeral was small, though the survivors and their friends came. Every one, without a doubt. Milky green orbs watched the scene, though it stayed in one general place.

His former-lover. Though the veteran still loved the hero, and he didn't doubt it was vice-versa, the hero had to move on. For the sake of his sanity.

/America... Don't you cry./

Smiling slightly, he watched as Splendont offered another tissue. Though the brothers were normally at each other's throats, and Splendont didn't particularly like or dislike him, the tragedy had pulled them together, if only Splendont being used as a support pillar.

/Rise to the top of the world, America... America, don't you cry.../

Still watching his lover sob, he peered up, seeing Lifty and Shifty linger at the edges of the funeral. He wouldn't doubt that they saw something nice and were planning on stealing.

/Lift me up... Give me strength to press on.../

Splendid continued with his 'hero' duties, stopping the town from complete chaos, though he was more chaotic on the inside of his mind.

Lifty and Shifty seemed more intent on using the Kryptonut, though Flippy had a habit of whispering for the other to use alternate routes to catch the two twins. It didn't stop Splendid from settling inside the hospital months later, though.

/Rise of the world... America... America, don't you cry.../

Splendid stared at 'Sniffles' with wide eyes, his new scrawny frame almost shaking. The underside of his eyes were dark, eyebrows furrowed in disbelief. A single tear trickled down his cheek, but he offered nothing more than that.

/Lift me up, give me strength to press on.../

Over the course of the next year, his visitors consisted of rare visits from Flaky and even Splendont. Though in his later months, he was too high-strung and drugged to have visitors allowed. Only Splendont for the fact he was family, though he couldn't manage to stay a cool mess.

The 'anti-hero' had made it his goal to beat Splendid, though... It was out of sibling rivalry. Now that his brother was dying of Kryptonut radiation poisoning... He was terrified. For his brother. For himself. Didn't that only mean he could die of exposure to Kryptonut as well?

/Rise to the top of the world... America... America, don't you cry.../

Silently crying, the opalescent form of Flippy peered up to his wired lover, eyes soft but watery with vapor tears. Almost-dead, navy blue eyes peered open slowly, immediately landing on the minted green aura of Flippy. Slowly, small details came into place, sad eyes, a distraught smile, a single tear.

Wheezing, Splendid tried grinning, though it only made his heart rate spike before dropping dangerously. Flippy stood, offering a hand, feeling the warm displaced air around his cold fingers.

A monotonous ring of a flat-lined patient.

/Lift me up.../

Flippy pulled the almost blinding blue aura up, and they immediately clung to each other. Vaporous tears poured down their cheeks, small echoes of laughter and words of love exchanged in the now-silent room, the heart monitor unplugged as the body was pronounced dead.

Flippy immediately moved, lacing his and his lover's fingers together and offering the same crooked grin. Splendid brushed their lips together, the green aura immediately giving the face that if he could blush, he would. The embarrassed, downturned frown immediately rose upward again as Flippy mimicked the action, peering upward. Glancing to Splendid, they shared a knowing look before stepping forward, their green-blue auras dissipating with an echo of laughter.

/Give me strength to press on./

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Again, something I typed up in two hours. ^ ^" It'd be a pleasure to hear what you all think about it. Splendid and the other characters were a bit complicated since they're human in this, and having a real character layout - and speech pattern - is kinda nonexistent.


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